Herod's Gate in WikipediaHerod's Gate (Hebrew: שער הפרחים Translit.: Sha'ar
HaPerachim Translated: Gate of the flowers, Arabic: باب
الساهرة‎) is a gate in the walls of the Old City of
Jerusalem. Its elevation is 755 meters above sea level. It
adjoins the Muslim Quarter, and is a short distance to the
east of the Damascus Gate. In proximity to the gate is an
Arab neighborhood called Bab a-Zahara, a variation of the
Arabic name for the gate.
This modest gate is one of the newest gates of Jerusalem. At
the time when Suleiman the Magnificent built the wall, a
small wicket gate was situated in front of the current gate,
which was rarely opened. By 1875, in order to provide a
passageway to the neighborhoods which were beginning to
develop north of the Old City, the Ottomans made a breach in
the northern part of the structure and closed the original
opening.
The gate is named after Herod the Great. That is because in
the Crusaders' period a church was built near the gate in
the belief that at the time of the Crucifixion of Jesus,
Herod Antipas's house was situated at that spot. In its
place today stands the church of Dir Al Ads.
In 1998 and during several subsequent excavation seasons
(the latest in 2004), archaeologists of the Israel
Antiquities Authority dug in the eastern area of Herod's
Gate. The digging focused on three separate areas adjacent
to the wall, in which nine archeological layers were
discovered – covering from the Iron age up through the
Turkish period. Among the most significant discoveries were
structures from the period of the Second Temple, a complete
segment of the Byzantine-Roman wall, and remnants of massive
construction underneath the wall. These remnants were
identified as portions of a fortification from the ancient
Muslim period and from the Middle Ages. These discoveries
point out the importance which the rulers of the city gave
to the fortification of one of its most sensitive places—the
northern wall of Jerusalem—as historical accounts indicate
that circa 1099 the Crusader soldiers in the command of
Godfrey of Bouillon entered the city through a breach
located in proximity to the present Herod's Gate.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herod's_Gate